Many electronic devices such as, e.g., computer systems, include circuit boards onto which components such as, e.g., integrated circuits may be mounted. Most computer systems include a main circuit board, frequently referred to as a motherboard, to which additional circuit boards and/or cards may be coupled.
Varying consumer preferences motivate computer manufacturers to design and manufacture computer systems having a wide variety of physical form factors. For example, computer systems may be offered in full-sized or reduced-size housings. In addition, motherboard configurations may vary based on the components included in the computing system.
Computer system designers have developed a variety of form factor design standards to accommodate varying consumer preferences. The ATX (Advance Technology Extended) standard was introduced in 1995. Numerous variations of the ATX were subsequently introduced with both smaller and larger form factors, including the microATX, Mini ATX, FlexATX and Extended ATX (EATX).
A computer system chassis compatible with the ATX standard provides only seven input/output (I/O) card slots. Given the increase in peripheral cards available to computer users, the seven card limitation for ATX computer systems has become problematic for some computer users.